Iridium announces date for fifth Iridium NEXT launch

Published by Steve NicholsPublished on 22nd January 2018|Comments Off on Iridium announces date for fifth Iridium NEXT launch

An Iridium NEXT satellite

Iridium Communications says that the fifth Iridium NEXT satellite launch has been targeted by SpaceX for March 18, 2018 at 8:19 am PDT (15:19 UTC) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The first of four launches planned for 2018, the launch will deliver 10 more NEXT satellites to orbit, bringing the total number of new satellites deployed to 50.

This launch will use the same Falcon 9 first stage as the Iridium-3 launch that took place in October 2017 and begin a rapid-cadence launch schedule targeting completion of the total manifest by mid-2018.

“We are entering the home stretch,” said Matt Desch, Chief Executive Officer, at Iridium.

“This is going to be a monumental year for us as we complete our constellation refresh. In addition to four launches, we will continue the testing and validation processes for our new specialty broadband service, Iridium Certus, and look forward to its commercial launch later this year.

“We consider 2017 to be a great success and anticipate this year to be even better.”

The network is comprised of six polar orbiting planes, each containing 11 operational crosslinked satellites, for a total of 66 satellites in the active constellation.

The Iridium-5 launch will deliver the new satellites to orbital plane one, where all 10 will go directly into service after testing and validation. Following this, the Iridium-6 Rideshare mission is targeted for mid-to-late April.

The Rideshare will carry five NEXT satellites and the twin satellites for the NASA/German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ) Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On mission.

The final four launches will bring a total of 35 new satellites to space, completing the constellation of 66 operational satellites and nine in-orbit spares.